


Feint

by Stone_Princess



Series: Fencing Lessons [4]
Category: Smallville
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2003-05-04
Updated: 2003-05-04
Packaged: 2017-10-26 08:24:59
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/280859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stone_Princess/pseuds/Stone_Princess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Feint: an action intended to draw a response from an opponent.  It can be offensive or defensive.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Feint

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to my patient and talented betas: Joyfulgirl, who puts up with so much from me, Rhiannonhero, my heart, who is always there when I ask, even if it's something she'll hate, and Autumnyte, who deserves what she gets from me, because she almost is me.

* * *

Smallville looked all wrong to Lex as he drove toward the Kent farm, following the same route he had taken for years, the route he’d taken the day he’d finally confessed his feelings to Clark. Everything looked new and sprawling after so long in Europe. So much space. Or maybe it was because he had left in summer and now everything was concealed under a blanket of thick, late winter snow.

It was more than the change of seasons though. In the six months Lex had been gone everything had changed. The death of his father had been expected, the legacy of human misery he left had not.

Having assumed responsibility for all of his father's mistakes, Lex had dissolved LuthorCorp. He brought the most lucrative assets under the umbrella of LexCorp and sold everything else off.

The disaster in Dresden, the experiments his father’s companies had conducted, was not as simple to clean up. The companies and labs had been disbanded, employees paid off, but the lawsuits from affected families wouldn't be settled for years. Lex had set money from the sales of the pieces of LuthorCorp in a trust to pay the settlements he hoped to arrange for each of the victim’s families. Fortunately, most of it had been kept out of the news and disbanding LuthorCorp would save Lex from being targeted as responsible for so many deaths and illnesses.

As he turned on to Hickory Lane, he wondered if he had made the right decision in coming straight here. Clark hadn't answered any of his emails, letters or phone calls in the six months he'd been gone. Lex knew he'd made a mistake in leaving the way he did, but there hadn't been any way to avoid that, and there wasn’t anything he could do about it after the fact. He had been so busy, all he could do was face whatever Clark had waiting for him when he returned.

The worst part of Europe had been the absence of Clark’s company. Lex was finally forced to face how much Clark meant to him. Not just the sex, but the fencing and the long conversations, the joy he got when they just hung out together. Losing his father was meaningless. His father was lost to him as soon as Lex saw what had been done in Dresden. Losing Clark was like losing a hand, painful, something he was reminded of every second of every day.

Lex stopped the Porsche in the Kent driveway, checking his watch, he hoped that he wasn't interrupting dinner. He should have gone by the mansion and gotten cleaned up instead of coming straight from the airport. Well, there was nothing to be done about it now. He raised his hand and knocked on the kitchen door. Martha's face peered at him from behind the curtain just before the door opened.

"Lex! Well, this is a surprise. I didn't know you were back." She stepped out and closed the door behind her, forcing Lex to step back.

"Hello, Mrs. Kent. I've only just returned today." Lex hadn't seen Mr. Kent's truck when he pulled up and wondered why she hadn't invited him in. "Is Clark home?"

"Lex." Martha sighed and looked at him as if she was trying to make up her mind about something. She shook her head a little. "He isn't here, Lex. He started at Metropolis University this past fall."

"Oh, I didn't know." Lex faltered. Clark's unresponsiveness was even harsher now, knowing so much had changed and Lex hadn't been included in on the details. "Is he, um, does he live on campus? I'm going to Metropolis this week, I..."

"Lex," Martha cut him off in the voice mothers used to tell their children that a favorite pet was dead. "I don't think you should contact him. I think it's best to let sleeping dogs lie. He has a new life now." Martha's eyes flashed warning. Lex heard the words she didn't say: don't go near my son.

"Martha, Mrs. Kent, I don't know what he told you, but I assure you..."

"You don't have to assure me of anything except that you will leave him alone. He never said anything to me, Lex. He didn't have to, I could see how much pain he was in and I can't help but think you were the cause of it." Lex's face burned at her words. He'd been denying how wrong he was to leave the way he had. He hadn't wanted to face why Clark hadn't returned his calls.

Lex stared at her, unsure what to say, how to convince her his intentions were honest. He didn't even have a chance to form a thought before she spoke again.

"It's good to see you, Lex. I'm really sorry to hear about your father." She reached up to gently touch his cheek, back from protective mama bear to concerned parent. "Take care of yourself, okay?" She patted him a little and turned and went back into the house leaving Lex confused, his eyes burning with tears at the first tenderness he'd felt from another person in six months. Tenderness given by someone who had just told him unequivocally to stay away from the only thing he knew he really wanted.

Lex felt for his phone and realized he'd left it in the car. He dialed as he drove away from the Kent Farm possibly for the last time.

"Mitch? Can you contact Metropolis University and get me the residence address of Clark Kent. Also, have the penthouse made ready, I won't be staying in Smallville tonight.

*****

The afternoon was trailing on. Clark felt like he hadn't done anything more eventful than studying in days. He'd been working on this paper for hours when someone knocked on the door.

"I'll get the door on my way out, if you get the phone," Chloe called as the phone rang.

"Hello," Clark answered, "Oh, hi, Mom!" He walked back toward his room with the cordless, a little surprised that his mom would call him this early in the day.

"Last night? No, I was at fencing practice. Did you leave a message? Oh, well...What? No, I didn't know he was back. Well, I don't know if I'll see him or not. No, mom, I..." Clark paused, movement in the doorway catching his eye. He looked up to see Lex standing, hesitant in the hallway. Oh god. It was as if his most wanted and most dreaded dreams both came true at exactly the same moment. "Look I have to call you back. Are you home today? Ok, talk to you later. Say 'hi' to Dad. Love you." He fumbled with phone as he turned it off, trying to center himself, trying to pick one feeling before he drowned in the rush of emotion Lex's return brought.

"I didn't mean to interrupt," Lex said, stepping into the room and looking around.

Clark looked at the phone in his hand and back at Lex. "That was my mom calling to tell me you were back." Clark set the phone on the desk, not taking his eyes off of Lex. Lex. Clearer and sharper than Clark's memory of him, but still the same. Dressed in unrumpled black and an expression that was desperately trying for impartiality. Clark looked for words to express his dismay at Lex's sudden arrival. "You should have called. Told me you were coming back." He said, although that wasn't what he meant at all, but it was too late for how and why.

"You haven't returned any of my calls for six months, Clark. I was sure the only way I'd actually see you was if I came and found you in person." Lex's eyes seemed to be cataloguing everything in the room, flicking back to Clark as they registered each item on the shelves and desk. Clark's heart pulled painfully as he watched Lex examine his new life. Lex cared about the unreturned phones and Clark wanted to be glad of it, but the raw wound of Lex's departure hadn't healed and Clark couldn't think of anything else. How had Lex found him so quickly?

"Did my mom tell you where I was?" Caught completely off guard, all the things Clark had planned to say when they met again suddenly flew from his head. All the things he had rehearsed every day since Lex left. He shook a little, tried to focus on what Lex was saying.

"...me you were at Met U, but I had to find out where you lived for myself. You mother didn't seem to think that I should see you again." Lex walked over and sat on the narrow bed, uninvited. Moving as always through Clark's place as if he belonged there. Lex glanced around the room again. "This place is pretty big. Nice for a college student." He smiled his cute little crooked smile and suddenly Clark was madder than he had ever been in his life. He felt half-crazed. Something in side of him had broken, the little line that kept all the terrible things he thought at the back of his mind.

"I see you've been fencing." Lex pointed to Clark's gear, stacked neatly on the armchair near the closet.

Clark stood still staring at Lex. "You have no right," he whispered.

"What?" Lex leaned forward a little and Clark couldn't take it any more. Six months of complete misery. And now it hurt more to see Lex than it had to miss him.

"You have no right!" Clark yelled. He shoved the fencing gear off the chair and kicked it toward Lex's feet, feeling more enraged as he did it. "You have no right to come in here, like you belong here and casually ask about the things I do. You should leave. There isn't anything here for you anymore."

"Clark, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have surprised you like this. We need to talk."

"No. There isn't anything left to talk about. I can't be friends with you anymore, Lex. Not after you left like that." He moved toward Lex, not sure what he was going to do. Throw him out? Kiss him and beg him stay? No, he just needed to make Lex leave once and for all. He couldn't do this any more. "What did you come here for?"

"I'm so sorry, Clark. About the way things went. I still want you and—"

"You want me? 'Still'? How nice, well, you know me: Clark Kent always willing to be your fucking doormat, Lex." Clark stripped off his t-shirt and stood before Lex, unbuttoning his jeans. He pushed the jeans and boxers down over his bare feet and stepped out of them. Standing naked in front of Lex. He indicated to his body, "Is it what you want?"

Lex just stared at him, not responding, his eyes challenging. Fuck Lex, always trying so hard to keep all of his feelings from Clark. Clark didn't need it, didn't need to be continually shut out. Lex and his precious fucking control. Control Clark knew Lex never had anyway. Control Clark had the power to take away.

"So, why are you here?" Clark asked, keeping his voice even, a fair approximation of calm. "Checking up on me? You want to see who I've been with since you left me?"

"No, Clark, I..."

Clark cut him off. "No, just sit there, Lex. I'm sure there's not anything I want from you. You have nothing left to give me." Clark stretched out in the chair across from where Lex sat on the small twin bed.

Stretching languorously, with a calm he didn't feel, Clark ran his hands over the defined muscles of his chest, abs, obliques. He ran smooth palms downs his hips and back up the inside of his thighs to his cock. He held his cock, hand wrapped around it.

"Was there ever anything you wanted from me, besides my cock?" Clark began stroking his semi-hard dick slowly, never taking his eyes from Lex as he worked. His breathing sped up and his cock swelled, bobbing against the slow movements of his hand. He jacked steadily, pausing only to hold up a warning hand as Lex rose from the bed. Surprise flickered over Lex's face, but sat back down nodding resignedly.

"Stay where you are. See, all I ever got from you is something I can do myself."

Clark's left hand squeezed and stroked his length. He spit into his right hand, turning a little and working the damp fingers into his ass, starting with two, a third quickly followed. It was supposed to be a lesson, show Lex what he couldn't have, but Clark couldn't help but remember every time he'd ever spent with Lex as Lex watched him. Twisting so his right hip rested on the edge of the chair, Clark straightened his leg, making his body a clean, taut line broken on only by the bend of his arms as his hands worked his ass and cock.

Clark jerked his cock hard, trying to make the pleasure take the memories away, trying to show Lex just how much he didn't need him. Curling his body down around his left hand, words tumbled from his lips as he came over his own chest.

"Lex, oh, please, Lex, I want..." Clark broke off panting. He came hard, looking into Lex's eyes. Sad, empty eyes that even now wouldn't give any indication of how Lex felt. Clark pulled a towel from the closet and wiped his hands and stomach with it, then turned confrontationally to Lex, his face burning with the humiliation of having called Lex's name in his weakest moment.

"Just leave, Lex. As you can see there isn't anything you can do for me that I can't do myself." Clark pulled some sweats from the pile of fencing gear at Lex's feet and pulled them on. He couldn't look at Lex anymore, couldn't stand another second of being taunted with what he would never have.

"Look, Clark, we—"

"God, Lex, just fucking go away, ok? You never took what I wanted to give you ever before. I came to you and told you what I wanted and you just left. Just left. And now what? I'm supposed to drop everything and become your little fuck toy again? I can't do it. I can't do it again. It was easier when you weren't here. Please just leave me alone." Clark turned around and managed to stand silently until he heard Lex go down the hall and close the door behind him. The sound of the door closing broke everything and Clark collapsed to floor sobbing.

*****

Lex felt slightly sick as he walked up the steps at the Joyce Center Fieldhouse at Notre Dame. The early March air was quite cold, and Lex attributed his shivers to weather rather than his own emotions. It had been nearly two months since Clark had cast him out. A tiny part him hoped that it was long enough for Clark to calm down and talk sensibly. Against his better judgment he'd come here, wanting to be, in any way that he could, part of Clark's big day.

"Lex," said shrill female voice. Lex looked up to see Chloe waving at him. She came up the steps to meet him.

"Hello, Chloe."

"Hi." She was bursting with energy, positive in a way Lex could barely relate too. "I'm surprised to see you here. You been too busy to even call since you got back? We haven't seen you at all."

Obviously Clark hadn't said anything to her about their fight a couple months ago. "Well, I couldn't miss seeing Clark become a champion." Lex was unsure what else to say, afraid he'd reveal himself to Chloe.

"I would have saved you a seat with us if I'd known you be here."

"Thanks. It's fine though; I know a couple of the coaches here. Should we go inside out of the cold?"

"Oh right," Chloe said as they ascended the stairs, "Duh. Clark wouldn't even be fencing if it wasn't for you."

Lex thought Clark wouldn't be a lot of things if it weren't for him. He wouldn't be miserable and angry, for example. Almost every night he flashed back to the show Clark had put on for him. So unlike Clark, so raw and angry and hurt. Clark had been trying to hurt Lex and he'd succeeded. Lex didn't love Clark any less for it.

"So how come you haven't come to any of the matches at Met U? Clark is 26-5, you know! He's like the best Men's Foil player they've ever had." Chloe's words snapped him back to the present.

Lex had hoped that Chloe had distracted herself from her own question, but he found her staring at him, waiting for ma answer.

"Ah, well, since I dissolved LuthorCorp I always seem to have twice as much work. I'm sorry I have missed the matches." He followed Chloe's eyes and found the Kents sitting near the front. Great, Martha surely wouldn't give him a warm welcome and he'd never expected one from Jonathan.

"Chloe, it's great to see you. I hate be rude, but I really should say hello to couple of people before I find a seat. Shall I find you after the match?"

"Yeah, sure, Lex. We're sitting down there." She pointed to the Kents. "Come find us, or well see you at the thing afterwards? The dinner?"

"Sure, Chloe. See you then." Lex felt as if he'd escaped death as he made his way to the Michigan State coach. He was glad to know Coach Gerechtigkeit so well, he felt it almost gave him an excuse to be here, however thinly veiled.

Lex got coffee and chatted with the coaches he knew, mostly small talk about how great it was to be at the Midwest Conference Championship. Several people brought up Clark's impressive record, tributing him with bringing Met U this far, much further than they'd ever made it before.

Lex sat on the far side of the Fieldhouse, hoping to remain unnoticed by Clark's friends and family.

Clark's match was one of the last of the evening. He was up against the best man from Duke University. If Clark won, he'd be qualifying for the NCAA national championship the following week.

It was the first time Lex had seen Clark fencing in an electrically scored match. Even concealed beneath all his gear, Clark was easy to pick out. His opponent was nearly as tall as he was, and although he didn't have Clark's grace, his reach was as long. It would be a tough match.

Despite his failure to appear at Met U matches, Lex had closely followed all Midwest Conference fencing since he'd been back. He tried to immerse himself entirely in work to free his mind from the devastation he felt at his own mistakes and Clark's dismissal of him. But everything he did seemed to lead back to Clark somehow. Finally he'd given in. Nothing wrong with following a sport he played and if it gave him at least a tiny peek into to Clark's life, well, that would have to be enough for Lex.

Clark's opponent began with a simple attack. His movements were smooth and practiced, he was as good, if not a better fencer than Lex. Clark parried, but did not riposte, letting his opponent come in for a remise before Clark feinted twice again and nearly took his opponent’s blade with a well-timed trompement. Followed by a nice attack from the Duke player.

Lex was awed at what a good fencer Clark had become. He used changes in cadence to cause his opponent to repeatedly mis-time his defense. Clark's movements were so fluid, almost inhuman, his grace really a thing of beauty. Watching Clark fence without him tore at Lex. It seemed Clark truly didn't need Lex for anything. He saw Clark's face, full of passion, pain and anger, naked in front of Lex, heard Clark tell him again that anything he got from Lex he could do for himself.

Even as the horrible memories lingered, so much stronger now that he saw Clark and couldn't lose them in work or drink, Lex was mesmerized by Clark's exceptional skill. Clark won the match after a startling coup d'arret. Lex moved down to the locker rooms, where he'd arranged to meet another coach he knew. He struggled with the hope he had that Clark would use this opportunity to talk to him.

As if on cue, Clark came through the doors, changed from his fencing whites to jeans and nice button down shirt. He sped up as he passed Lex.

"Clark!" Lex called. Clark turned, looked right at him and turned around and walked away. Lex looked to see Chloe watching them with a quizzical look in her face. What had he really hoped for? Clark to come crawling back? Clearly that was never going to happen. Lex turned and walked straight out to his car.

He knew it had been a bad idea to come here.


End file.
